Metal Hammer have premiered Corey Taylor‘s cover of the DIO classic ‘Rainbow In The Dark’ via their website.

“Corey Taylor contributed those gravelly tones of his to upcoming Dio tribute Ronnie James Dio: This Is Your Life, and we’re stoked to be debuting the track!

Corey is joined by Steel Panther guitarist Satchel, plus Stone Sour drummer Roy Mayorga and touring buddies Jason Christopher and Christian Martucci, for a stunning rendition of Dio anthem Rainbow In The Dark, originally taken from the timeless Holy Diver.

Featuring the likes of Metallica, Anthrax, Corey Taylor, Halestorm, Killswitch Engage and many more, Ronnie James Dio: This Is Your Life lands on April 1 via Rhino and features a selection of covers of some of Ronnie’s most iconic tracks.

The album will raise funds for the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up and Shout Cancer Fund (diocancerfund.org) and was organised and produced by his wife, Wendy.

FOO FIGHTERS mainman Dave Grohl, SLIPKNOT vocalist Corey Taylor and DEAD KENNEDYS leader Jello Biafra are among the members of a supergroup named TEENAGE TIME KILLER.

And founder Reed Mullin, drummer with Corrosion Of Conformity, promises that people are going to love the “hardcore punk, punk and metal” that they are making.

The project also features Nick Oliveri (ex-Queens Of The Stone Age and Kyuss), Neil Fallon (Clutch), Keith Morris (Black Flag), Max Cavalera (Soulfy) and others.

Mullins reports: “We had all these other folks who wanted to participate. It’s a very good mixture – people are going to be pleasantly surprised. It’s pretty cool.”

No further Teenage Time Killer information has been released. Meanwhile, Grohl is busy with making a new Foo Fighters album after saying last year: “We’re going to make this album in a way that no one’s ever done before. We’re pretty excited about it.” Taylor is at work on Slipknot’s first record since the death of bassist Paul Gray and the acrimonious departure of drummer Joey Jordison.

SLIPKNOT recently announced that they have parted ways with drummer Joey Jordison for personal reasons. Frontman Corey Taylor has taken to Twitter crushing rumors that the band is crumbling with the following statement:

“For those who think the Knot are falling apart, you are greatly and sadly mistaken. Bring on 2014. Great things are coming. Stay tuned…”

The band revealed Jordison’s departure via the following update:

“To our Maggots and fans around the world,

It is with great pain but quiet respect, that for personal reasons Joey Jordison and Slipknot are parting ways. We all wish Joey the best in whatever his future holds. We understand that many of you will want to know how and why this has come to be, and we will do our best to respond to these questions in the near future. It is our love for all of you, as well as for the music we create, that spurs us to continue on and move forward with our plans for releasing new material in the next year. We hope that all of you will come to understand this, and we appreciate your continued support while we plan the next phase of the future of Slipknot.

To close out the year, ArtistDirect.com broke down vocalist COREY TAYLOR‘s best acoustic songs, reaching into his STONE SOUR and SLIPKNOT catalogues:

“From Stone Sour’s masterpiece Come What(ever) May, ‘Through Glass’ is one of Taylor’s finest compositions ever and a true acoustic gem. It’s so powerful it never leaves your head, and it illuminates just what a dynamic songwriter he is belonging in the pantheon with the likes of EDDIE VEDDER, CHRIS CORNELL, and JERRY CANTRELL for the genre.”

Harry of the Minneapolis radio station 93X spoke to SLIPKNOT and STONE SOUR singer Corey Taylor earlier today (Friday, December 13). You can now listen to the chat using the SondCloud widget below. A few excerpts from the chat follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On SLIPKNOT‘s split with drummer Joey Jordison, one of the band’s founding members and key songwriters:

Corey: “Honestly, I can’t really talk about it right now. It’s still so fresh and there’s a lot of things going on behind the scenes that people don’t know about. So, legally and respectfully, I can’t say a lot about it. I can confirm that — obviously, we put something up on the web site but I can confirm that we have parted ways with Joey, and as soon as we can say something, we will. I mean, we’re trying to protect him, trying to protect us, just making sure that we do everything right, because that’s what we would expect from ourselves and that’s what we would expect from the fans. And I know the fans are chomping at the bit; it’s just we can’t really say anything right now. It sucks for them and it sucks for us, because, I mean, we have always really prided ourselves on being able to come out and be honest with everybody. But there’s really nothing we can say right now. And until we can, it’s just kind of… It’s difficult, but if people can bear with us, we’ll cross that bridge when we can.”

On the progress of the songwriting sessions for the next SLIPKNOT album:

Corey: “We’re working on new material right now and getting some stuff together. I’ve been writing some stuff, Jim [Root, guitar] has got a ton of stuff. The guys are actually together right now jamming and putting stuff together. It’s sounding really, really good. In light of yesterday’s news, I know it’s weird, but if anything positive can come out of this, it’s just that I hope the fans know that we’re really working towards putting out an album next year. So we’re deep in it right now.”

On whether Joey has been involved in the songwriting process for the next SLIPKNOT album:

Corey: “No, no. He’s been doing SCAR THE MARTYR. So this is all fresh material that just a handful of us have been putting together.”

On SLIPKNOT guitarist Jim Root sitting out STONE SOUR‘s next tour so he can concentrate on writing material for the next SLIPKNOT album:

Corey: “We wanted to go back out with STONE SOUR and do one more tour — just kind of wrap things up, because we were pretty smoked by the time we got done with the European run, especially with doing both bands, that we all just kind of needed some time off. But we wanted to go out and kind of do one more cool, quick run through the States, especially, and play some stuff off ‘House Of Gold And Bones Part 2′ that we never got a chance to, and just kind of make it fun for the fans. So we talked to Jim — Jim was in SLIPKNOT mode — so we talked to him about bringing a friend of ours, Christian Martucci, out to play, and he was fine with it, everybody was cool with it. So this is just kind of a way for us to kind of wrap everything up before I have to jump off the ship and start working on SLIPKNOT stuff as well.”

On when he will start getting more involved in the songwriting process for the next SLIPKNOT album:

Corey: “I’m letting them kind of work stuff out right now. I’ve got a handful of things that I’m doing… Obviously, I’m doing a tornado relief show in Peoria tomorrow, and I’m also filming a movie, which is pretty sweet. My schedule is pretty crazy, but I didn’t wanna hold them back from really jumping in and getting started on the writing process. So they’re sendinig me stuff, I’m kind of jotting down notes and everything. And I’ve been writing down a lot of lyrics and ideas for about a year and a half now, so I’m well ahead of the game. And just with the stuff that they’re coming up with, I’m working on arrangements and trying to kind of get as much pre-production done as I can while they’re doing rough demos and stuff, so once we do go into the studio next year, we’ll be just well rehearsed and ready to make this as live and heavy as possible.”

On the next SLIPKNOT album being the band’s first without bassist Paul Gray (who passed away in 2010) and Joey Jordison:

Corey: “Everybody’s kind of stepping up. I think that was one of the reasons why we took so long to kind of start breaking ground on something like this. Everybody was in really weird places in their lives. so we wanted to make sure that not only we were getting out to the fans and letting them kind of pay their respects and celebrate the music, but also giving us a chance to kind of come back to this band with a more positive attitude and be able to get our heads around the fact that we are gonna have to step it up and really and come in creatively ready to fill in those holes. In the last couple of months, it’s really started to feel like it’s time. Like I said, I’ve been writing stuff, Jim’s been writing stuff. Everybody’s really kind of coming up with these great ideas that sound very different, but they’re very SLIPKNOT. It’s just getting to the point where we’re getting very serious about it. And without getting too much into the Joey situation, it really felt like everybody in the band was on the sme page when it came to everything that was going on.”

SLIPKNOT announced its split with Jordison in a statement on the band’s web site late on Thursday (December 12) which read, “It is with great pain but quiet respect that, for personal reasons, Joey Jordison and SLIPKNOT are parting ways. We all wish Joey the best in whatever his future holds. We understand that many of you will want to know how and why this has come to be, and we will do our best to respond to these questions in the near future.”

The statement added, “It is our love for all of you, as well as for the music we create, that spurs us to continue on and move forward with our plans for releasing new material in the next year. We hope that all of you will come to understand this, and we appreciate your continued support while we plan the next phase of the future of SLIPKNOT.”

Jordison told The Pulse Of Radio not long ago that he expected great things out of the next SLIPKNOT record. “I think it’s gonna be really, really cool,” he said. “I think it’s gonna be a really, really great record because, I mean, everyone’s being really involved in the process and I think it should be, definitely for me it’s gonna be, I think it’s gonna be a healing process for all of us.”

Jordison has spent the past few months touring with his new project SCAR THE MARTYR, whose self-titled debut album came out in October.

Jordison joined SLIPKNOT in 1995 when the band was called THE PALE ONES. He was the third of the band’s eventual nine members to become part of the lineup.

Jordison has also been the lead guitarist for the group MURDERDOLLS, and has performed as a touring drummer for ROB ZOMBIE, KORN and MINISTRY. He even played for METALLICA one time when Lars Ulrich fell ill.

STONE SOUR and SLIPKNOT singer Corey Taylor‘s new book, “A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Heaven (Or, How I Made Peace With The Paranormal And Stigmatized Zealots And Cynics In The Process)”, documents his quest to find out the reason why he’s had so many paranormal experiences over the years and what has caused them. He told The Pulse Of Radio how that search inspired the book. “I sat back and I realized I had all of these experiences and I was still kind of looking for answers,” he said. “I’ve never been satisfied with religious connotation, I’ve never been satisfied with the various and so-called ‘ghost hunters,’ so I just kind of sat down and started trying to figure things out for myself. And a lot of the explanations I came to made more sense than what was available.”

The book arrived on Tuesday (July 15).

Taylor will make his way to San Diego on Saturday (July 20) to sign copies of the book and his “House Of Gold & Bones” comic book series at the massive geek culture event Comic-Con.

The singer is also offering a BitTorrent Bundle which includes part one of “A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Heaven”, the book’s cover art, a sample of Taylor‘s comic book, four original comic book covers, and four alternative comic book covers and sketches. If you sign up with your email address, you’ll get an exclusive download of the music video for “Do Me a Favor”.